The story of working.

The values of ethics are important and vast beyond different cultures and identities with people who walk and live in the year of 2025; with that, there can come great certainty that there will be movements that shift the world for better or for worse, when people can come together and agree on the value of a certain ethical issue or a certain situation that they need to handle.

One example of an ethical issue when I was at work in 2020 during the time of COVID-19. I worked at a Barnes and Noble Café; they sell everything from Barnes and Noble branded items for food and cookies, to Starbucks drinks that are on the seasonal and yearly menu for coffee and whatever else we sell.

I was merely a barista, minding my own business, trying to get by with the new world issues, COVID-19, working to save some money at this time, and just balancing a social life in a predicament that no one asked for.

I had been a seasonal barista at this Barnes and Noble Café for over 4-5 months at this time, and I was kept on staff because of how well I was doing as a seasonal worker, so they decided to hire me for part-time; I stayed and enjoyed my job till one dreary, winter night in the middle of late December of 2020 to early January of 2021.

I had a customer walk into the establishment with no mask on, and he walked specifically into the café area, still wearing no mask and being belligerent. Working my shift, standing behind a very loud espresso machine, trying to grind up some beans and make some crème for someone’s coffee, steaming milk; all the nine yards…he walks up behind the plastic panel to where I face him from behind the counter, politely telling him, I’d be with him in a minute once I was done making someone’s drink. I might have been a little loud, due to the fact that the espresso machine was very loud and I was trying to let him know, “Hey sir, I will be with you in one second, I might also need to tell you to wear a mask soon if you’ll be in the café area.”

I was not mean, just stern with him. I politely made the last customer’s drink and let them go on their day. I kid you not, brother rolls up standing to the plastic panel yet again after stomping around after I told him what’s up. He came up, I spoke to him meeting him at this plastic panel that probably defended me more than I could have thought. He starts yelling in my face, telling me not to tell him what to do. Keep in mind, I am some 20-year-old young lady, just trying to make coffee and get by. He’s at least 5’10” and older with some money; he had probably never been taught manners based off how rude he was being. He probably never worked a job before where he had to interact with people from behind the counter and vis-versa. I pity him.

Next thing I know, I am in a panic attack mode, due to that. My general manager came over to ask what the fuss was about. I told her everything that I could, as calmly as I could with tears rolling down my face. She sided with the customer. I quit.

Fun story.

Never let someone beat you around.

What exactly does this have to do with ethics though? During the time of COVID-19 it was instructed by the government(s) across the world to be needing to wear masks because we were not sure how it was spreading or where COVID-19 came from in China or wherever else.

During this crazy time, since I was working this job, I felt the need to speak to this man politely but stern enough to get the point across; it was a scary and unsettling time for us all. During this confrontation, was I a bit loud? Yes. Was the intention to be rude? Of course not.

This can also explain why it’s always important to remain as professional as possible, especially if someone is struggling or is not really understanding where you’re coming from; that could either be a colleague or a customer as prime examples in my situation.

I tried to handle the situation as well as I could under pressure and with the mindset of anxiety and stress I was in, when the customer was yelling at me and the GM of the store was “taking his side,” because this is how this looked at the time for me.

I explain this that she was “taking his side” but this didn’t seem to be the case, necessarily. But she did drive for me to quit when she wouldn’t stop to let me speak or give me five minutes to calm down; I asked her as best as I could while breaking down and that I needed someone to just cover for a few minutes till he was gone so I could continue my shift till the end. – The reason why this became an ethically-based issue, was because I was trying my best to explain how sorry I was, and that I was not trying to create a scene. I pleaded to her that it was a misunderstanding. She did not listen to me or my needs, as her worker or even as a human being. Since this happened, I decided to quit. No job should ever feel “toxic” to where you are feeling scared for your life because a 40-50s something, older man is yelling at you at your job where you make coffee for minimum wage.

Relating this back to the article I needed to read, under “Read about Ethics,” with the article here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intro_1.shtml - I feel that I could relate this back to the point of “Ethics can provide a moral map,” and “Ethics can pinpoint a disagreement” – I think these both would relate to my issue I went through.

With “Ethics can provide a moral map,” first, moral issues with the COVID-19 pandemic, was at an all time high. People were scared. We were in a very interesting time in human history with people of this generation experiencing a global pandemic for the first time ever.

People all over the world, were instructed to wear a mask, regardless of where you went in public. Morally, it would be the right thing to do, especially if you were sick with COVID-19 and/or just wanted to protect yourself, since that was the severity of the situation. This could lead to many disagreements, because people were on the fence in political and moral standpoints about the reality of the mask situation in COVID-19.

I could say I had people in my own life who disagreed with wearing masks, such as the customer I dealt with in the situation I described above. Since this pinpointed the disagreement and I went based off on my own moral standpoint of what I was told to do and making my own conscious choices to kindly confront this man about wearing a mask, it led to me having a disagreement with him and my GM.

In the article, I quote:

“Using the framework of ethics, two people who are arguing a moral issue can often find that what they disagree about is just one particular part of the issue, and that they broadly agree on everything else.

That can take a lot of heat out of the argument, and sometimes even hint at a way for them to resolve their problem.

But sometimes ethics doesn't provide people with the sort of help that they really want.”

Since COVID-19 was not just a moral issue that affected every single person living and/or dying during this time, it was basically “life or death,” in my standpoint, with the limited amount of research and knowledge of what we knew COVID-19 could do a human.

I believe in the standpoint of “right” and “wrong” with the choice I made, I was not exactly “right” or “wrong,” I handled the situation as good as I could in the stand point of time I was in.